


Paradise

by Tinytokki



Series: Treasure (The Pirate Chronicles of ATEEZ) [9]
Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: ATEEZ (Band) Are Pirates, Action/Adventure, Age of Sail, Alternate Universe - Age of Sail, Alternate Universe - Historical, Alternate Universe - Pirate, Backstory, Blood and Violence, Broken Families, Brother-Sister Relationships, Childhood Trauma, Chronic Illness, Coming of Age, Drama, Fluff and Angst, Gardens & Gardening, Gen, Graphic Depictions of Illness, Growing Up, Gunshot Wounds, Historical Inaccuracy, Martial Arts, Origin Story, Personal Growth, Pirates, Running Away, Single Parents, Surgery, Teenage Rebellion, The Royal Navy, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-12-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:20:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23239111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tinytokki/pseuds/Tinytokki
Summary: San's life has been chaos as long as he can remember, but the path of his life has always been set- until one day, it isn't. His ability to think on his feet and adapt is suddenly tested and only by overcoming the odds will he set sail from his little home island.
Series: Treasure (The Pirate Chronicles of ATEEZ) [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1341256
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	1. Growing Up

San remembered the mainland. He would play with the other village children and watch his father teach martial arts and attend school like he was told. It was a busier and louder place than the island he lived on now. 

San never expected to come home to the cottage swarming with doctors and their stinky medicines. The day he did was the beginning of the snowballing changes that defined every day since.

From the look of things, San had no choice but to assume someone had died. One of his classmates had come home to a similar scene a few years ago and told him the next day that it had been his grandmother, and the chaos was caused by funeral arrangers and distant family members looking to auction off her things.

San was only seven, but he knew what death was. He had buried the dead birds that flew into his bedroom window and he knew they weren’t coming back. People did the same thing, sometimes just as unexpectedly.

He swallowed down a thousand worrisome thoughts and entered the house. There weren’t strangers rifling through their silver but a mysterious tray of metal instruments and a couple of nurses waiting next to it.

San was small and sneaky enough to escape their notice and slip past them while they focused on their work, into his noona’s room where he finally got his answers.

“San? What are you doing here?” 

His father spotted him and went to scoop the little boy up, but not before he saw what would be engrained into his mind.

His half-sister Haneul in bed, sweating and pale as the sheet she lay on, coughing into a bloody handkerchief with eyes glazed over and deathly hollow. 

He shook with fear from the sight and let his father console him where they sat in the garden until he could muster the courage to ask what was going on.

Haneul had contracted a contagious disease. San couldn’t properly pronounce the name of it but he knew it was one that reared its ugly head in crowded towns such as his and that for his own safety, he wouldn’t be allowed near her.

At first San was jealous. All his noona had to do was cough some blood into a handkerchief and suddenly there was no schoolwork for her.

Then, he was bored. His favourite playmate wasn’t allowed to leave her room even if she wanted to, and San wasn’t allowed to go in under any circumstances.

Next he became nervous. Because this wasn’t the average winter sniffles, it was months of feverish nights and painful coughing that San could hear from the other room, and it kept him up with the worry that the medicine wasn’t working.

Like most children, San knew more than anyone gave him credit for about the declining state of household affairs. He was quite shrewd for a seven year old and he knew that something was wrong by the way the lady who cleaned their clothes stopped coming to work. And the lady who watered their plants. And the lady who cooked their meals.

Soon it was just the three of them, and it still wasn’t enough. Haneul’s health continued to decline and now their father was spending extra long hours away, making money to afford the doctors.

San didn’t like the doctors. It was always one after the next, they never paid any attention to him, and they charged for everything. Services, bloodletting, medicines— everything. One of them even had the audacity to return to their front door to beg for funding for a research trip in the west long after they’d dismissed him.

By the time San turned nine, he was angry.

Birthdays had passed with little more than a pat on the head, Father never cooked any of his favourite foods anymore, and he still wasn’t allowed to visit Haneul.

So he tried acting out. 

It began with stomping on the flowers in the garden. He waited three days after the deed had been done and then ran back outside to try to salvage them when the damage wasn’t noticed because he felt bad. San liked looking at the flowers and he really didn’t mean to hurt them.

His father never noticed the smushed petals and droopy stems, so San tried to give him something he would notice.

He had always been a bright student, and he liked his teachers even when he didn’t like the work they gave him, but to see if his father would pay him any attention at all, he decided to skip school.

San roped a few of his loyal friends into it and they spent the day in the woods, sword fighting with sticks, throwing rocks at the tree branches, and jumping into the river. 

He returned home to a clueless father, and the headmaster caned him for it the next day. San walked home in a slump after a day of scowling at his textbooks and waited around for his father to arrive.

Sneaking into the hallway, he cracked open the door to Haneul’s room. She lay there gently breathing, more peaceful than he had last seen her. He softly closed the door to let her sleep. None of this was her fault. San knew that much.

His father returned from work with a tasty pie gifted by one of his more charitable clients and sat down at the table with his son for the first time in months.

“I want to discuss something with you, San.”

San ducked his head to hide the blush that spread across his cheeks when he realised he was probably about to get the scolding of a lifetime for yesterday’s stunt.

“Your sister’s health has improved.”

Father always called her his sister, even though she was his half-sister.

San lifted his head slowly. So that’s what this was about. He had noticed that they hadn’t switched doctors in the past few weeks and it seemed that it was a good thing after all.

Perhaps this meant he would get to play with her again. Perhaps this meant more time as a family...

“She’s overcome the worst of it, I’m very glad to say. But the disease has left her very, very weak.”

The pain in his eyes and the choking force with which he delivered the news sent a shaky swallow down San’s throat. “What does that mean?” He whispered, lowering his fork and forgetting the pie.

“It means she won’t ever fully recover. You and I, we can join society and find our professions and places in life. But Haneul... Haneul will always be confined to her bed.”

“So...” San felt horribly selfish for thinking of himself first. “Does that mean I don’t get to play with her at all?”

His father smiled a watery smile and shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid not, San.”

Silence fell for a moment and San tried to keep the food down. He had considered the possibility, like he had considered every possibility, but he didn’t think it would be so world-altering when it hit home.

“The doctor thinks her health will improve even more if she gets constant fresh air.”

San knew what that meant— _not_ in the city. “Will it improve enough for her to get out of bed? If she tries really, really hard?” His eyes shone up at his father’s as long as he could hold them open, begging for a favourable answer. 

“It just might San. It just might.”

It was decided that Haneul would move to the island that their grandparents lived on. San wanted to stay and finish school, learn a trade, maybe follow in his father’s footsteps, but it quickly became clear that it was not to be.

San had been spending time with Haneul, as much time as possible to make up for the lost years of her sickness, and she had grown quite attached to him. 

“She wants you to go with her.”

San looked up in confusion from where he had been digging in the garden. Worms to show Haneul, because even though she squealed and hid her face behind a pillow, she was secretly fascinated by them.

“Why?”

His father sighed and ran a hand through his hair before occupying the bench next to the vegetables.

“She... she just does. She’s afraid of travelling on her own, she’s afraid of grandfather and grandmother not knowing what to do if she gets sick again, she’s afraid of living the rest of her life without you...”

He cut himself off, as if realising belatedly that he had said too much. Too much for a nine year old, anyway. San released the worms and watched them wiggle back down into the soil, waiting for his father to speak again.

“Your sister is just a bit nervous about the big change. And I think I’d like you to go with her.”

Father couldn’t say no to his weak, sickly daughter. If she asked him for the kingdom he would give it to her.

San threw a fit that day, stomping for a second time on the flowers he had just been tending to, and sobbing into his pillow when his father ordered him to his room.

He didn’t want to move away with his half-sister. He wanted to stay here with his friends and his treehouse in the woods and his (regrettably smushed) garden. Even if he didn’t learn martial arts like his father.

There had to be some way to stop this from happening, or slow it down at the very least.

So for the third time, San acted out.

He ran to the woods alone as soon as school let out, scaled a tree to a height he deemed good enough, and he jumped. A broken leg would put a wrench in Father’s plans.

Haneul cried and cried when he came limping back with a soiled face and a bloody leg. Together they cried, San mostly at his own selfishness until their father came home.

He washed and wrapped the sorry limb and sent San to rest in bed, but not before the boy saw him bent over his desk, writing to his grandparents by candlelight. It would have to be a few weeks more until the move.

The operation was a success. San bit back the pain and forced himself to go to sleep, resolving to take this secret with him to the grave.

It only hit him the next morning when he awoke grumpy and sore from a restless night that he had essentially grounded himself.

How was he supposed to spend his last days with his friends in the woods when he couldn’t even walk to the garden?

After much begging, his father consented to inviting San’s little group for a gathering in his bedroom. His friends brought him some baked goods and a small box of his favourite rocks, broken pottery bits, and feathers from their little forest glade. But they abided by the rules and didn’t play any roughhousing games.

San learned a lot that day. From the stories his friends told him and the combined force of their imaginations to the seriousness of the injury he had inflicted on himself to Haneul’s very real affection for and attachment to him.

Part of San had felt like something severed between them, when she became ill and closed off from the world. She had left him out in the cold to fend for himself and if there was one thing San hated above everything it was being left all alone.

He put his own desires aside and accepted his fate that evening, when he had hugged all his friends goodbye and promised to write, and his father had carried him into Haneul’s room to let them talk before bed.

“I’m glad you’re coming with me,” she whispered as she carded her fingers through his hair. “There’s a new life for us on Namhae.”

He nodded against her side where he lay still and sober. The decision had been made for him, and no amount of screaming and pleading would change that decision.

“Does it hurt?” She asked him. “A bit,” he sighed in response, looking at his splinted leg regretfully. “All the ice numbed it quite well.”

“I’m glad,” she mumbled, fighting the pull of sleep. San marvelled at the fact that having been in as much pain as she had, Haneul could pity the broken leg of her very foolish younger half-brother.

It shamed him into silence for the rest of the night as he was carried back to his own bed. 

For the seven weeks he had bought himself, San behaved. He completed the schoolwork brought to him, he didn’t trouble his father for extra pie, and he didn’t stomp on any more flowers.

As soon as he was permitted, he moved outside to soak up his afternoons in the garden. On his final day, he watered the lopsided blooms and left the watering can on his father’s desk. He didn’t know if his grandparents had a garden, but he hoped there were at least a few trees to climb.

The boat that took him and Haneul to Namhae was only medium sized when he thought back to it, but to nine year old San it was a floating mountain.

It was the first of many things to be a source of wonder for him, a broadening of his little world and a promise of adventure to come. As he wheeled Haneul onto the deck, he turned and looked back once at the mainland. He would remember it as a bustling, crowded place that he tried so hard not to leave.

In hindsight, it was probably the best decision of his life.


	2. Namhae

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just in the nick of time to save San from his overactive imagination, an old man in a straw hat pulled up in front of them, eyes glinting beneath the brim.

San was expecting the island to be smaller (a grassy hill, rimmed by sand, with a cluster of palm trees and his grandparents’ house at the top, just like the pictures in storybooks). But at least there was more to explore this way.

He wheeled Haneul off the ship and looked around in awe. The docks were vivid and teeming with activity, the busiest part of town by a long shot.

Up the road he could see the main town, and past the hills, the beginnings of a neighbourhood stretched away.

San and Haneul waited by the docks just as they were told and took in the sights of their new home.

Many houses and shops were right on the water, with the ocean interwoven into everyday life. From what the ship captain had said, there was another port on the opposite side of the island, with the road connecting them and a grassy grove at the top of the hill.

His grandparents lived on the other side, the eastern face of the island, in a house that overlooked the ocean and the eastern town.

San started to worry that they had forgotten them. All the other passengers had disembarked and he and Haneul waited alone for a carriage to come into view.

He hadn’t seen his grandparents in a long time, but San hoped they would at least recognise him so that he wouldn’t have to spend the night here, on the docks.

Suddenly the men tying up the ship and walking to and fro around the marina looked a lot scarier.

Just in the nick of time to save San from his overactive imagination, an old man in a straw hat pulled up in front of them, eyes glinting beneath the brim.

“What have we here?”

The man’s voice, San recognised. Grandfather used to tell them stories when he visited and this was the same man with his fuzzy beard and his deep chuckle, even if San had to drag the memory up from his earlier days.

“It’s us, Grandfather!” Haneul giggled when the old man squinted at them and hummed low.

“Oh I don’t think so,” he said with a shake of his head. “My grandchildren were much smaller last time I saw them. You two are far too big to be my Haneul and San.”

“It’s us, Grandfather!” San laughed, insisting further when the man pretended to start turning his cart around. “It really is.”

Grandfather finally gave up the act and threw his head back in a bout of laughter, dismounting and pulling both children into a fierce hug. “Come here, you scallywags.”

San’s worries melted away. He and Haneul may have changed, but Grandfather hadn’t.

“How was your first ever voyage?” The man asked amiably once they were both settled in the back, cushioned on a bed of hay. Haneul’s wheelchair was stowed next to her, and the two of them drank in the gorgeous views as they ascended the hill.

“Not at all like I thought it would be,” San admitted, inhaling the salty air that would soon become familiar to him. “The trip was very short and we didn’t see any pirates.”

“Pirates?” Grandfather barked out a laugh and turned back to wink at him. “Oh, you won’t be seeing any of them around here, don’t you worry. The Navy is constructing a garrison on Namhae some time in the next year or two. Isn’t that exciting?”

The Navy.

They had been a presence in his home village, too, and all San really knew about them was that they defended the eastern coastline fiercely, expanding their fortifications with each passing year. The sea must be really dangerous.

One of San’s friends had an older brother that was what he called “pressganged”, forced into the Navy in a low position that practically made him cannon fodder for pirates and other enemies. It sounded like a horrible experience and San wondered distantly if the Navy might try to get him to join, too, as soon as they moved in.

“San?”

San’s head shot up and he realised his attention had drifted. “Right, of course!” He answered. “That’s exciting.”

Silence settled over them and only the rattling of the cart and the crashing waves sounded. Eventually, Grandfather asked another question.

“What do you want to do when you grow up, San?”

_Not be killed by pirates_ , San almost said, but he thought of something else instead.

“Well, maybe I’ll become a doctor so I can help Haneul.”

Haneul smiled at him and tilted her head, looking like the comment had touched her deeply. “You already help me, San, just by being here.”

It was a sweet sentiment, but San felt like he could be doing more. Standing around idly was never an attractive option to him, even as young as he was. Eventually, he would have to grow up and make a living doing something.

“So I suppose you won’t want to look around the carpentry shop,” Grandfather sang as they slowed to a stop in front of a quaint little three story house.

“Carpentry shop?” San pouted. He had never been in one and he wasn’t about to throw the option out.

“This is where I work and your Grandmother and I live,” Grandfather announced, helping them both out of the cart while a servant came and took the reigns to drive it to a stable. “You’ll be staying here, too. How do you like it?”

It was bigger than their old house on the mainland and more colourful, still smelling of fresh paint that had been spread on earlier in the day. They were trying to make it fun and welcoming, and San appreciated it.

Grandfather was happily pushing Haneul up the dirt path in her wheelchair, where the door squeaked open and an old woman emerged. “There they are!” She cooed as she planted kisses all over Haneul’s face.

“Sannie! My sweet boy,” Grandmother pinched his cheeks as he tried to smile, but it only came out halfway thanks to the grip she had on him.

Grandparents and their obsession with pointing out the growth spurts of their grandchildren. She hugged him so tight her chuckles passed on to him, and led him upstairs into the main house while Grandfather carried Haneul up behind them, taking special notice of the way San’s eyes shifted around to scan the carpentry shop.

“I’ll give you a proper tour tomorrow,” he promised with a warm smile. “Maybe I can even put you to work.”

As San sat before the feast Grandmother had prepared for them, savouring her cooking and the fact that he wasn’t eating alone like he used to, he realised maybe this arrangement wasn’t so bad.

“The other boys will be excited to meet you when you start at school,” Grandmother said as she led him to his new room. “And your Grandfather and I will be very happy to have you around.”

She tucked him in and gave him a kiss on the forehead before blowing out the candle. It was so tender it made him miss his own mother even though he had no memory of her.

There was a window next to his bed with a view to the backyard. San gazed outside and took inventory of what was there.

A couple of trees, a small bench situated next to a stone wall covered in ivy that separated their property from the neighbour’s. No real garden, but plenty of space for one.

San lay back with a smile. There was potential here, even if he was nervous about meeting new people.

It was a big island but still a quiet town. Everyone knew everyone.

Tonight to San, it was a golden egg with unknown treasures hidden inside for him to crack open. He would start tomorrow, but first, he let the washing waves lull him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short but sweet :) More chapters will be out soon, and of course more chapters of the other works too. Let me know what you thought! <3


	3. Pirate Stories

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Gasping, San ducked into a small crevice and clamped a hand over his mouth. It was a pirate. It must be.

San’s new home was different, but mostly in a good way.

He woke up every morning to the most spectacular view and the wind in his hair had him picturing all the faraway places connected by the rolling waves in front of him.

Gulls swooped low and carried his imagination away over the horizon. From his first morning at Namhae on, San was pulled to the sea no matter how hard he tried not to be.

When he wasn’t at school, watching Grandfather work in the carpentry shop, or climbing the trees behind the house, San was on the beach.

The sand was soft between his toes, the water was clear and cool, and the waves were fun to dodge or be soaked with.

But San loved most to collect seashells. 

The first time Grandmother carried Haneul to the beach, she took a liking to the large, shiny kind of shells and so it became San’s mission to collect them for her while she lay drawing pictures in the sand and building lopsided palaces.

San could see why doctors always said the sea air would do their patient good, because he had never seen Haneul happier than when he gave her a beautiful pearly conch to crown her creation.

When the faint shape of the moon appeared and San’s fingers were wrinkly from the sea, he lay next to Haneul and watched the stars come out.

Grandmother was inside cooking supper, which left the two to each other’s company.

“I imagine adjusting to island life has been difficult for you,” Haneul said softly, twirling a strand of grass plucked from a nearby dune.

San turned to face her in surprise. 

Once again Haneul shocked him with her priorities.

“I’m alright,” he assured her, laying back and putting his hands behind his head. “Namhae is different but... I’m getting used to it.”

Haneul nodded and adjusted her dress to lay down next to San.

“Even the stars are brighter here,” she sighed contentedly, drinking in the sight and soon the smell of dinner wafting towards them.

Yet another of the benefits of his new life. Grandmother’s cooking.

Still San was careful to help Haneul up the dirt path to the house when they were called inside for a delectable dish of noodles and meat.

“You didn’t come down to the shop today,” Grandfather pointed out casually in a tone that carefully masked his intentions of asking.

Grandmother gave him a weary look and wiped some sauce off of San’s face. “He was having a good time down at the beach, wasn’t he?”

San blinked, confused, before nodding and shovelling another bite into his mouth.

He knew what his grandparents were arguing about, and to tell the truth, he was ignoring carpentry for as long as possible.

It was interesting for a few hours but San found himself restless and longing to be outside by noon every time he tried to construct something.

Grandfather said one day he would learn patience, but San didn’t think he would need it. Not when the adventure he craved was only a boat ride away.

“Is there any chance of sailing this weekend?” He asked timidly when his plate was cleared. “I’ve finished all my schoolwork and you still haven’t taken us out to see the rest of the archipelago.”

“No, it’s alright if you go without me,” Haneul said quickly. “Boats aren’t really to my taste.”

San pouted at her but understood why she was hesitant. Just the trip from the mainland to Namhae had been enough to make her nauseous again.

“Well, I-I don’t know,” Grandfather sighed, scanning San’s face to see if there was any loophole for him to sneak through and wiggle out of an argument. “I still have work to do and the boat isn’t patched up.”

“He can go with Shim,” Grandmother suggested. San broke into a premature grin, thankful to have her on his side again. “He’ll have to wake up early but the weather is nice, I don’t see why not.”

Grandfather mulled it over for a moment more before consenting with another sigh. “I’ll go speak with him now.”

Mr. Shim was their neighbour, a sailor who worked ferrying people to and fro throughout the archipelago, and like all the people San had met here, he was kind and welcoming despite San’s nerves about being introduced to him.

He allowed San to come with him on his trip to the neighbouring island of Dalhae under the condition that he listened to what he was told and didn’t cause any trouble.

It was only a day trip, so San walked over to Mr. Shim’s little cabin just before sunrise with a bag full of provisions packed by his grandmother and some of Haneul’s favourite shells for good luck. 

He crossed the beach with a skip in his step, beyond thrilled to be going on his first ever adventure at sea, even if it was only a short journey to Dalhae and back.

The morning wind sped them along in the little cutter Mr. Shim captained and even though San had nothing to do other than gaze at the big blue world around him, he was having the time of his life.

It was Mr. Shim’s day off so the passengers were only the two of them and Shim’s assistant Jiyong, who San was tempted to grill with questions on the sailing life.

“What do you do if you’re caught at sea and there’s a storm?” He asked, squinting at the clouds to see if he was in danger of such a circumstance.

Jiyong laughed and sat next to him once the lines were tied off properly. “Well, it’s never happened to me, but Mr. Shim was stuck farther out to the east once when a thunderstorm rolled in. He had to batten down the hatches and ride it out.”

San shivered with excitement. What an ordeal that must have been. 

“How about pirates? Do you ever run into any of those?”

Jiyong frowned at this and glanced back at Mr. Shim, almost as if he was checking whether he should divulge such information.

“We’ve never been attacked,” he began. “But pirates were once known to roam the archipelago. When I was a boy there was a famous pirate captain discovered on Dalhae. He was in disguise and living among us, and no one knew until his own men turned on him, which is why I believe there may yet be pirates in hiding.”

San’s eyes grew big and round at this. “Really? Do you think there might be a raid on Namhae?”

“Pirates are desperate people, and desperate people are often dangerous,” Jiyong warned. “There’s no telling what they may do. The Dread Pirate Eden hasn’t been spotted west of the trade routes in a couple of months but I know he’s still out there.”

This was just the kind of information that set San’s curiosity ablaze and he spent the rest of the trip daydreaming about pirate raids and secret hideouts.

Soon the distant peaks of Dalhae had grown closer and the small crew was docking in a busy marina.

San wanted to jump straight into exploring but Mr. Shim advised him to stay close while they entered town together and began a long winded lecture on the history of the archipelago.

The main market was situated on the side of a hill that led down the grassy slope to Dalhae’s famous cave systems.

Exciting to explore, but also dangerous according to Mr. Shim.

So of course, the moment his back was turned, San ran down the hill and chose the first path leading to the caves, trembling with adrenaline.

Only five minutes in, the cave had grown dark and cold and San had walked straight into a cave wall twice as different paths led different directions. He began wishing he had picked up a lantern or something at the entrance.

Ten minutes in, he tripped over a skeleton and froze to catch his breath. Surely it was fake, just for decoration?

The possibility of becoming trapped loomed heavier and heavier in his mind, and a voice echoing out behind him sent a shiver down his spine.

Ghosts?

“San!”

Ghosts that knew his name?

“San, it’s me, Jiyong. Are you there?”

“Yes, I—”

Just as he was about to turn around and follow the voice, San missed his footing. Blind to the cavern in front of him, he went tumbling down a good five feet or so and hit the ground hard, rock formations digging into his backside.

“San, are you there?”

“I-I fell,” San whimpered up into the blackness.

Gradually, a shadow appeared in front of him until a lantern came into full view and Jiyong’s head appeared beside it, peering down the drop until he spotted San shifting uncomfortably. 

“You silly boy,” he scolded, sharp words bouncing off the cave walls as he put down his lantern and reached an arm down. “Grab hold, I’ll get you out of there.”

San went to stand and reach for the arm, but a pain shot through his foot the moment he did. It was his bad leg.

“I can’t,” he called up, heart rate quickening as he realised he’d have to be left alone again. This wasn’t very fun at all.

“Alright, San, I’m going to get help but I’ll be back, don’t worry,” Jiyong assured him. “Just remain where you are and try to stay calm. Can you do that for me?”

San nodded, tears in his eyes, and watched the light fade as Jiyong left him. Now he was alone in the darkness with only a distant dripping sound to cling to.

That, and a faint voice somewhere ahead of him.

San blinked at the space in front of where he was huddled and watched what looked like torchlight bounce off the cave walls. This cavern was connected to another passage.

Remembering Jiyong’s words, San resolved to stay put, turning away and willing the light to go somewhere else. It probably wasn’t even real, he was frightened and so he was seeing things.

But the tunnel looked man-made and San’s curiosity had become a voracious itch. Biting his lip, he scooted forward and crawled on, following the rays of light as they disappeared around the corner. It would be awhile before Jiyong returned anyway.

Eventually, he caught sight of the person holding the torch, a stranger scurrying ahead with a long coat and a bag strapped to him.

He had a peg leg.

Gasping, San ducked into a small crevice and clamped a hand over his mouth. It was a pirate. It must be.

A knocking rang out down the tunnel. The man stomping his peg into the ground.

Suddenly a scraping sound like a boulder being moved echoed briefly, and voices followed.

San risked a peek. It was some type of secret room, and the pirate was requesting access.

“Let me in,” his gravelly voice insisted.

A younger, smoother voice ignored his request and asked a question of its own.

“What are you doing here?”

“Yonghwan, I need help,” the pirate hissed. “Why else would I return to this place?”

“You’ll be seen and I’ll be discovered,” the second man, Yonghwan, answered. “Give me one good reason why I should help you, Seongho.”

“You hate the Admiral as much as I do and we both know it. I can’t make it worth your while but you have to understand, I’ve lost everything.”

San’s brow furrowed. Was this some type of underground pirate refuge right underneath the Navy’s noses?

In his attempts to get closer and pick up the low voices of the pirates, one of Haneul’s shells slipped out from his pocket.

The talking ceased and San gulped im sudden terror.

He’d been discovered.

Before either of the men could grab him, San took off back down the tunnel, bolting as fast as he’d ever gone despite his bad leg slowing him down.

Behind him, he could hear the peg leg pirate protest as he was pushed over, the younger pirate barrelling past the man in pursuit.

San skidded to a stop and took a sudden left turn, returning to the space where he’d fallen and curling up into a ball, hoping he wouldn’t be seen. The pirate chasing him didn’t have a light, if he was quiet enough he wouldn’t be found.

Seconds passed, then minutes, then a voice shook San out of his stillness. “Up here! San, I’ve got help.”

Jiyong and a pair of local men had come back for him, throwing him a rope and pulling his shaking form up into their arms.

“Are you alright?” Jiyong whispered as he carried him back out into the sunlight. San was too terrified to speak, so he nodded and blinked furiously.

He could swear he saw a pair of eyes watching him go from the dark mouth of the caves. 

_ It’s just my imagination, _ he repeated to himself over and over.  _ Everything was just my imagination. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey guys! Sorry it's been awhile, I've been working on a special something I'll tell you about when it's ready ;) Until then, hope you enjoyed and don't forget to comment <3


	4. The Pearl in the Oyster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things were changing in Namhae. San didn't know what to make of it yet.

By the time San was seated in the boat with the wind on his face and the shores of his town on the horizon, he had overcome his shock at discovering a secret pirate refuge.

Jiyong and Mr. Shim had fussed over him and grilled him with questions after he was rescued, but from a combination of the fact that he wasn’t sure whether he had imagined the whole ordeal and the fact that he was terrified, he hadn’t given them much information.

“Please don’t tell my grandparents,” he suddenly begged as the Namhae docks came into view.

“San, you were lost in the caves for nearly an hour,” Mr. Shim argued as he adjusted the sails. “It would be irresponsible of me not to tell them.”

“But I’m not hurt!” San argued back, getting to his feet and swaying slightly with the momentum of the boat. “And they’ll only be angry at me for running away!”

Mr. Shim frowned at him, but he didn’t scold him again, so San took it as a sign to continue.

“Didn’t _you_ ever wander off as a boy? You wouldn’t have wanted your parents to know, would you?”

“I did have my mischievous days,” the man admitted. “But I matured and stayed away from dangerous places until I could handle myself.”

He delivered this last line with a pointed glance, one that told San if he could shape up, he would be off the hook.

A smile grew on his face and he nodded eagerly.

“Alright,” Mr. Shim chuckled. “I was young once too, wasn’t I?”

San greeted the now familiar shores of his island with relief and helped to unload the boat until his grandparents appeared at the docks to collect him.

The old sailor reported that they had enjoyed a refreshing and uneventful time in the markets of Dalhae, true to his word. San waved goodbye to the two and flopped around in the back of the cart on the ride home.

Warm food in his belly and a gentle breeze  blowing through his window, San told Haneul of his adventures and organised her shells into a small wooden chest until Grandmother poked her head in and told them to go to bed.

Even as he stared into the fireplace and tried to fall asleep, the eyes of the pirate lingered in the back of his mind.

Supposing San had gotten all the adventure that he needed, Grandfather put him to work in the carpentry shop the next morning and even more frequently after.

When he was out of the room, busy selling his wares in town, or asleep at the desk, San took it as an opportunity to stretch his sore leg and practice fighting invisible pirates in the carpentry shop unsupervised.

Of course, this resulted in the destruction of some of the carving displays and plank storage, so Grandfather passed him off to Grandmother while he cleaned up after him, and San was subject to quiet reading and a picnic on the beach for the afternoon.

For a boy with an active imagination, San’s life had become rather boring. Unless it was about pirates, it wasn’t interesting enough, so Grandmother in her indulgence gifted him a few naval history books in the hopes that he would be satiated. 

He was unsuccessful in discovering the identities of the pirates in the caves no matter how hard he researched, especially when all he had to go on was the fact that one had been sporting a peg leg (apparently a common occurrence among pirates) and the other had seemed... young. 

San had all but given up hope when one rainy day in late autumn, the familiar tapping sound of a peg leg resounded from the front path. 

His head shot up from where he had been in deep focus at his little desk, whittling a wooden ship (that Grandfather had discouraged, and didn’t need to know about) and he counted two seconds before the jangle of the bell rung out and the customer was on the doorstep, silhouetted by dripping rain that blinked silver in the lightning flash.

Suddenly, the stranger stepped closer and just like that, the fantasy was shattered. San didn’t recognise this man from the caves.

“Wh-Who are you?” He croaked out weakly, standing from his chair and watching the peg leg man intently. Pirate or no pirate, San was ready to defend the house from him if need be.

The man frowned and closed the door behind him, adjusting his satchel with an unreadable look in his eye. “I was informed you’d be expecting me.”

If they were expecting him, San wasn’t aware of the fact. It had only been three days since the magistrate had been over for dinner, and San’s grandparents didn’t invite guests that frequently. 

“Who are you, exactly?” He asked, trying to be polite, catching himself with a late bow.

“Oh, hello Dr. Hong!” 

Right on cue, Grandfather rushed out from the back room and came to shake hands with the man, whose large bag made a lot more sense now. 

A doctor.

San didn’t like doctors.

“I hope San didn’t let you stand out in the rain,” Grandfather was saying with a pointed glance that told San he was in trouble if he had.

“No, not at all,” Dr. Hong laughed as he was helped out of his coat. “The lad seemed wary, but I can see why.”

The doctor tapped his peg leg on the rug and San blushed at being called out. “I’ll tell you how I got it if you ask,” the man continued with a bright smile. “But first, I have a patient to attend to!”

Grandfather and the doctor hurried upstairs and left San to his own devices, wondering why a doctor had been called and quieting his intense curiosity about the peg leg as it began to grow again.

He finished the masts by the time Dr. Hong returned to the shop. Sensing the boy’s nervousness, the doctor quickly reassured him his visit was only a routine checkup. 

“Haneul is doing well, all things considered,” he told him softly. “Though, you must always protect her and keep her healthy.”

San agreed in a heartbeat, not too naïve to forget why he was here on Namhae in the first place. 

Everything was for Haneul.

“Ah, yes, the leg,” the guest remembered just before leaving. 

San perked up and scooted closer to hear the tale. 

“It was back in my Navy days, before I picked up medicine,” he explained. “I was a gunner on one of those cargo transport ships, the Royal Longtail, back when the East Colonies were just starting out and the trade routes were being established. We were attacked by pirates on the trip back and I, an inexperienced soldier, was shot in the leg and carted to the infirmary for the rest of the battle. I thought for a few harrowing moments that I was on the brink of death, but somehow I was saved.”

“How?” San nearly burst out, leaning on the edge of his seat.

Dr. Hong displayed his peg leg again. “The surgeon chopped off my leg just above the knee and managed to stop the bleeding. That miracle— the one that saved my life— convinced me to switch to the field of surgery. It’s quite new and underdeveloped but as you can see, real results are happening!”

San smiled at the satisfying conclusion of the story and bid the doctor farewell.

He still didn’t like them as a rule, but he could make an exception for this one. 

Haneul claimed to be doing fine when San brought the evening meal up to her bedroom where she lay staring at the ceiling, but her skin was pale and clammy and from the way she was breathing he could tell she was anxious about something.

“Do you... want me to sit with you?” He asked timidly, unsure how to help once he’d set the plate on her bedside table and closed the window to shut out the breeze.

“No, just leave me alone,” his half-sister muttered, rolling over to face the wall and leaving San hurt and confused.

Without another word, he crept away and into his own room, tucking himself into bed. He knew not to take it personally, that sometimes she just got into moods like this when she was discouraged about her illness.

But it made San worry that the doctor hadn’t in fact told him everything.

Haneul appeared at breakfast but refused to play with him when he returned from school, in the few hours San had before he would be herded back into the carpentry shop.

It was disappointing but San took it as an opportunity to look for new friends, something he hadn’t put much effort into since arriving.

There were a couple of teenage girls with a five year old brother playing further down the beach on the rocks, the opposite way as Mr. Shim’s house, so San strolled over and introduced himself.

“I haven’t seen you before,” he admitted shyly. “Do you usually play further up the beach?”

“Yes,” the older of the two explained. “But today we’ve come here because of the construction.”

“Construction?” San asked, confused.

The girl pointed past the rooftops to the harbour where the masts craned like birds flocking along the shoreline. “The naval garrison. They’re finally building it.”

“It’s loud!” The little boy whined, crying when a particularly large swell washed him face-down into the sand. 

San giggled and helped him up, seamlessly joining in their hunt for oysters while they told him what the garrison in town was going to look like.

He couldn’t help but glance over the hill and wonder what it would mean for Namhae. The more Navy presence, the less likely pirates would appear. And the less likely the two from the Dalhae caves would appear.

As San cracked open an oyster and, to his amazement, found a lucky pearl, he decided maybe it was for the better.

He’d had his adventure- enough adventure for a lifetime.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who finished her semester!!!!! It was a rough one tbh but now I can write unhindered so expect more from me soon, but in the meantime don't forget to kudos and comment <3

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Paradise! This is the backstory spinoff for San from the Treasure Series, so be sure to check that out first if you haven't (although who am I to tell you what to do). I'll update according to the cycle as regularly as I can, so please comment if you'd like to see more and hmu on twt @/tiny_tokki to stay in touch! Thanks for reading <3


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